The WMO expects global warming and other long-term climate change trends to continue. Climate change: April showed another temperature record Climate and Environment
Last April was the warmest on record – meteorologists recorded record global temperatures for the eleventh month in a row. This was reported on Friday from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), citing data from the European Climate Change Service of the Copernicus program. Sea surface temperatures have been at record highs for the past 13 months.
Extended Heat
Monthly report highlights the extraordinary duration of record temperatures caused by the natural El Niño phenomenon and additional energy trapped in the atmosphere and ocean greenhouse gases resulting from human activities. A similar trend was observed during the El Niño phenomenon in 2015-2016.
Hot April
The average surface air temperature in April 2024 was 15.03 °C, which is 0.67 °C above the average for April 1991-2020 and 0.14 °C above the previous maximum set in April 2016.
The month was 1.58°C warmer than the estimated April average for 1850-1900, a period scientists call “pre-industrial.” Experts explain that monthly temperature rises of 1.5 °C do not mean that the goal set in the Paris climate agreement is impossible to achieve. The paper talks about long-term increases in temperatures over decades.
The record temperatures were accompanied by severe weather events, including heat waves in many parts of Asia, drought in southern Africa and extreme precipitation on the Arabian Peninsula. Persistent heavy rainfall in East Africa and southern Brazil intensified in the first week of May, leading to devastating and deadly flooding.
“A large number of extreme weather and climate events (including record-breaking daily and monthly temperatures and precipitation) are more likely in a warmer world,” said WMO climate expert Alvaro Silva.
Sea surface temperatures in several ocean basins, including the tropics, continue to remain at record highs, he said, releasing more heat and moisture into the atmosphere and thus worsening the situation.
Extreme weather events
Wide temperature changes were observed across Europe in April. Temperatures were above average in northern and northeastern North America, Greenland, eastern Asia, the northwestern Middle East, parts of South America, and much of Africa.
India suffered heat waves in April and early May, with the India Meteorological Department issuing numerous advisories and warnings to protect public health. The highest maximum temperature of 47.2°C was recorded in Ganga, West Bengal on 30 April. In Bangladesh, schools were closed as a precaution against dangerous heat.
According to the Thailand Meteorological Department, the country recorded many new temperature records on April 27 – in some places the heat exceeded 44 ºC, and in Myanmar a new temperature record was set at 48.2 °C.
Unusually high temperatures were also recorded in Mexico – 45.8 °C . The heat wave there is expected to continue with maximum temperatures above 40°C.